Duke sophomore Emma Lazaroff will blog throughout the 2014 season, providing fans with an inside look at life on the Blue Devil women's lacrosse team. Look for Emma's blog all year on GoDuke.com.

It has been a crazy first few months of lacrosse from run tests, to ice bath parties, to our fall ball tournaments. In October our team headed to Maryland and Virginia to compete in our first competition of the year – and we were proud to be able to participate at Play For Parkinson’s. I am positive that all of us agree it was nice to be able to play an actual lacrosse game over a run and lift with our favorite trainer Jeff Howser. Don’t get me wrong, nothing is better than a Howser workout, but it was exciting to finally see everyone in action on the field. For those that watched, I think you’d agree the team started to come together, getting better each game we played.

I thought the best way to start the blog off for this year was by quickly introducing … taa daaa … the freshmen! I hope I don’t bore you too much since this year we have quite a few newbies:

#15 Casey Black - Already showed us her McDonough skills on attack, ripping goals and putting defenders on their butts.

#35 Helen Cammerzell - Our lefty freshman who has been schooling defensemen on her wing dodges at practice.

#20 Caitlin Carey - One of our scrappiest players, willing to put her body on the line for any ball.

#13 Stuart Humphrey - Nobody loves peanut butter as much as this girl and if that’s her pre-practice or pregame meal it is obviously working.

#18 Isabelle Montagne - Made a statement this fall in her first college game when she took a charge to the face and ended up with a couple stitches right on her nose. (Don’t worry Izz, you still looked great).

#10 Kitty Morrissey - No one can keep up with Kitty. She came into the run tests this year ready to compete and left everyone in the dust.

#17 Devon Russell - D. Russell is a defensive wall that never stops smiling and laughing.

#27 Paige Russell - P. Russell (or twin number 2) is the quickest one off the circle and MIGHT have more swag than Kerrin (swag-kween) Maurer.

(Hopefully I got those numbers right because the Russell sisters are identical twins. And you would think they would make their numbers very different from each other to make it easier for us to tell them apart, but nooooo).

#5 Maura Schwitter - With long arms and legs, this girl can grab any ball that is thrown at her, even if it is too high or too low. Nothing is out of reach for Schwitty.

#28 Hayley Shaffer - Sarcastic Shaffer who convinced the entire team she had a boyfriend for the first couple of weeks of practice (nice work Hals). She is also one of sneakiest players on attack and somehow always finds herself wide open in front of the net.

And welcome to new assistant coach Molly O’Brien, the last newbie. Molly joins the awesome Duke staff after a stint playing at UConn and grew up as a Tar Heel fan – but, we won’t hold that against her as long as she continues to wear Duke Blue.

Make no mistake; this year our team is something special, and our shot at a national title is directly in our vision. True, it’s only fall ball and we have quite a lot to work on and the NCAA Tournament is a ways off, but I have no doubt that we will be there competing for that title. And we are excited to make that run, with these 10 amazing new additions to the Duke Lacrosse family.

And of course thank you to all the parents, friends and family that always come out and support the team. You all are amazing and it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. We love you all!